A goat, two elephants, three monkeys, a wolf, two pelicans and a cat. Six Banksy murals which have appeared in London have left many pondering the meaning behind the elusive street artist’s latest work. It began with the mountain goat on Monday, appearing to be perched on a ledge with rocks falling off and depicted in Banksy’s signature stencil style on a wall in Richmond, west London.

Next came two elephant heads, peering out of two blocked out windows on the side of a house in affluent Chelsea, followed by three monkeys which appear to be hanging from a railway bridge near east London’s Brick Lane. The silhouette of a wolf, howling at the sky, appeared on a satellite dish atop a heavily graffitied building in Peckham, southeast London, on Thursday. Banksy has posted pictures of each on his Instagram account.

London’s Metropolitan Police said the satellite dish had been reported stolen within hours of being unveiled. Pictures in local media showed it being removed by a person who had their face covered with a mask. Two other murals depicting silhouettes of two pelicans over a fish shop and a stretching cat have also appeared.

People gather to look at an artwork by Banksy depicting two pelicans catching fish, painted on top of a fish and chips shop in Walthamstow, northeast London.

A pedestrian stops to look at an artwork by Banksy depicting a big cat looking up toward a hole in a disused advertising billboard, in northwest London, on Aug 10, 2024.

A photograph shows an empty lot where an artwork by Banksy depicting a howling wolf, painted on the side of a satellite dish, before it was stolen in south London.

A pedestrian looking at a stencilled Banksy artwork, depicting a mountain goat and falling rubble at the top of a pillar, on the side of a building in Kew Gardens, west London.--AFP photos

An artwork by street artist Banksy, the third to be released in three days, depicting three monkeys, is pictured painted on the side of a railway bridge in east London.

Theories swirled on social media as to the meaning of the works, by an artist who has highlighted themes such as war and climate change in his previous work. Some speculated they could be related to the riots and racist attacks that have swept the country in the past week, others to the idea that humanity is seeding its own downfall.

“I think it’s actually a mountain gazelle from Palestine. So I think that work has to do with Palestine,” Daniel Lloyd-Morgan, a 60-year-old artist told AFP. “Banksy is trying to get us to think and reflect about the ecological crisis that really threatens humanity,” university professor Fawaz Gerges told AFP as he admired the latest work. “His focus seems to be on animals, on trees, on oceans and it’s an overarching theme of his in the past few months,” he added.

“Nice one Banksy. I see this as a critique on the wild and chaotic behavior currently erupting across the UK. Far right thugs on the prowl,” one user “barrybrexiter” commented on Banksy’s Instagram post. Another “leticia_vega” wrote “Humanity is not going to last ... animals will be taking over.”

The Bristol-based artist’s last mural, also in London, depicted green paint sprayed across the side of a building to mimic the foliage of a real, heavily pruned tree that stands a few meters in front of it. Many took that mural as speaking to a need to preserve nature. In December, Banksy depicted three drones on a stop sign, again in Peckham. It was stolen very shortly after it went up. – Agencies